The Warrior (Dante Walker, #3)

by Victoria Scott

[Angie]

The Warrior is a solid ending to this super fun series, but it didn't capture me the way the previous two books did. Dante, Charlie, and the gang are still at the Hive, where they're training for the upcoming battle and trying to decipher the rest of the message on the scroll. Dante is also having nightmares about Aspen, but they seem too vivid and real to be simply dreams. Is she trying to tell him something? Meanwhile, collectors and sirens are surrounding the compound, doing everything in their power to weaken the liberators and their allies. But there's a traitor in their midst, and Dante can't protect Charlie from them forever.

I really did not like Charlie in The Warrior. I loved her in The Collector, but now, she just kind of faded away. This made me not enjoy the romance as much either, since Dante came across as a love sick puppy who's being ignored by the object of his affection. Charlie says she loves Dante, and they share some smooches, but I just didn't feel it. I know she's worried about her part in the prophecy, but it seemed more like she lost all personality and became a background character despite everyone fretting over her safety.

I also had issues with a few minor plot points, mostly regarding the traitor. I think it's super obvious who it is from the beginning, despite some tactics to make us look at a specific character as the culprit. I can't fall for this, since whoever the protagonist waves their finger at, is never the one. There's always someone else who is supposedly on their side, and yet complains a lot, who is the real traitor. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised when they were revealed, and I was also annoyed at their little speech about how they didn't think Charlie would actually get hurt. Um, this is a war! Did they really think that they'd whisk her off to Hell and then sit down and have a tea party?

Now that I got all of that out of the way, onto what I did like about The Warrior. When he's not pining after Charlie, Dante is still the loveable, foul mouthed, bad boy that I've loved from the beginning. There is no lack of laughs, even when the situation gets more intense, Dante finds a way to crack a joke or poke fun at someone. The airport scene, with the fanny pack is hilarious! I also loved Annabelle's love triangle. It had the tension and passion that I was missing from Dante and Charlie.

Of course, being the final book, The Warrior has an epic battle scene. Unlike other finales, it doesn't just take one chapter at the end, and then everything is swell. The battle has several phases and spans a good chunk of the book. There's lots of violence and a few twists, and it definitely kept my attention! There is a cute, moderately cheesy epilogue, but I thought it worked given the nature of the series. I'm going to miss Dante! Pow!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.